Boy Scout Camp: A Comparison

A plethora of mysterious things occur during Boy Scout Camp. Here's a list of ingredients in that mysterious recipe, to be compared with YW Camp:

• Outhouse contests: (You sure you want to know?) Boys of higher ages encouraging boys of lower ages to drop larger and larger rocks down the outhouse hole until, finally, the glorious brown splash is produced and said younger boys realize why it's not such a fun activity after all.
• Pyromania.
• Swearing.
• Guns. In the hands of 12-year olds.
• Nicknames: some nice, some not as nice. (Nathan earned the nickname "Hawaii 5-0" for the shell necklace he wore, as well as his very cool demeanor. So he says.)
• Food fights.

And these are just the things I actually heard about. Heaven knows what else went on. According to seasoned scouting parents, I won't hear the worst of the stories for another 15-20 years when the statute of limitations has run out.

The result? It truly is a mystery, but somehow, this recipe managed to produce:

• 6 merit badges
• slightly increased responsibility
• a healthy sense of independence
• a growing faith

Wow. Vastly different recipes. Equivalent results. Well...nearly. I would have posted a photo, but oddly, no one took any during the camp week. Mysterious.

Absolutes

So I know, in general, you're not supposed to make generalizations, because they're just too... general. But sometimes, they're just generally... true. For example: Kids can't resist the impulse to push buttons. Both kinds--the ones you can touch with your finger and the ones that are attached to nerve endings.

I've noticed some things that seem to be true for just about every boy or every girl. Yes, I know, not really EVERY one. But here are my generalizations:

Boys MUST destroy every paper clip they see.
Boys MUST stare at any nearby electronic screen, even if the screen is just in "blue" mode.

Girls MUST make at least one writing mark on every scrap of paper within 10 feet.
Girls MUST have the last word, the last eye-roll, or the last tongue sticking out.

Do these sound right to you? In general?

Simplicity

It's that time of year again. The time when I spend anywhere from 2-8 hours a day on planning stake YW camp. The time I ignore my children, throw Nathan worksheets for school, let the house go, permanently attach a phone to my ear, and sleep, breathe, and eat camp.

This past week had the following elements:

• Eric gone all week on business.
• Trip to the vet, due to cat's completely liquid diarrhea problem.
• Carpet cleaning. See above.
• Homeschool Science Fair, hosted by me.
• 2 baseball games
• Mother's Day Tea at the preschool
• Piano and trumpet lessons
• Camp meetings
• Father/Son campout (which Eric left for less than one hour after flying back in from his trip)
• etc.--You know how it is. Things get so busy, don't they?

I really do try to take a little time out here and there to pay attention to the kids. And I was richly rewarded in the time I spent with Stephanie. Her little words of wisdom reminded me that the simple things really make all the difference. Here are some gems:

(Smelling someone's BBQ wafting through the air)--"The air smells GREAT! It has fire in it!"
"Look at that clouds. It looks like a monster. With hands."
"I'm a good cooker. Right, Mom?"
And the one that made my heart swell: "I'm happy. I love you, Mom."

Nothing like a popsicle and a scooter to remind you that life is good. She summed it up. That's what I want for my kids--happiness and family love.

I haven't always loved Mother's Day, but today I feel truly blessed.

Pete, Re-peat, & She-peat

Hi. These are my kids.

What?

Hi. These are my kids.

Huh?

HI. THESE. ARE. MY. KIDS. *Sigh*

They're great kids, but they all seem to have come with a similar defect.  When I say something to them, the first response is almost always... "What?"  Even if he/she asked me a question first.

Re-peat: "Where are we going?"
The Patient me: "To the neighbors' house."
Re-peat: "What?"
The Eyebrows-raised me: "To the neighbors' house."
She-peat: "Why?"
The Patient me: "To take them some cookies." (Aren't we nice neighbors?)
She-peat: "What?"
The (less) Patient me: "To take them cookies." *sigh*
Pete: "Where are we going?"
Me: (deep breath) ... "To the neighbors' house." *huff*
Pete: "What?"
Totally frustrated me: "To. The. Neighbors'. House! We're taking them cookies! Does anyone else want to know where we're going?!" *hyper-ventilating*
Pete, Re-peat, and She-peat: "What?"
Lunatic Me: "TO THE NEIGHBORS' HOUSE!" (pause) "Actually, you know what? We're just going home. We'll go to the neighbors' house to give them cookies later, when I'm happier."
All the -peats: "What?"

Is this normal? Should I get their hearing tested? Ask for a refund? :) And don't say what!

The. End.

HO-memade HO-liday. HUM-bug.

Okay. Here's how this works. I show you a picture of the hand-made gift I created for each of my children, and then you say, "Wow! That's beautiful! It's amazing! You made that? Your kids will love it! That will be a treasure they keep forever, and they will feel your love every time they look at it! Natalie, how wonderful of you to try doing a homemade Christmas this year, instead of just giving the kids more toys to treat like garbage in the basement."

It doesn't have to be those exact words, but you get the idea. Just say something that expresses the awe and wonder you would feel if your mother spent many back-breaking, yawning, late-night hours working secretly on a special gift just for you.

Here it comes. This is the one made for Nathan. His favorite color is blue.

That was your cue. "Wow! It's amazing, it's beautiful...etc."

And next we have the Daniel quilt. He loves holidays and seasons, so the blocks represent those.

CHORUS

And, lastly, the crown jewel of my efforts, Stephanie's pink quilt, which I made in less than 3 days. And I'm not a quilter, people. It's really sewn together with love (and I hope it holds up, HA!).

I felt a need to show the back of this one also because the fabric is just beautiful. SO beautiful, in fact, that THAT is really what makes the quilt and the real reason I could do it in 3 days--no matter what pattern I chose, it would have been lovely because of this unique fabric.

So, way back in July, I told the kids (or warned the kids) that they would not be getting a lot of toys for Christmas because we were going to do more homemade things instead. Who needs MORE toys? We have 3 bedrooms and a basement full of them. And they're not interested in parting with any of them. So I said they would receive homemade items and things they need, and a FEW things that were just for fun. Well, I forgot about grandparents and friends giving them things, so they still got plenty of gifts to play with. But my hope was that they would truly be wow-ed by these quilts and immediately begin loving them forever.

Now I'm not picking on my kids. They're great kids and they were thankful for all their gifts. They DO seem to like them very much, but these quilts are already being used for tug-of-war, for fort-building, for putting over the head and walking around like a ghost, etc. In short, they are just another blanket. HO-HO-HUM. But maybe, when they go off to college, this will be the one thing they insist on taking with them, right?  Maybe.

Gingerbread Prison

There are a lot of interesting things about 12-year old boys. I'm keeping a list, and this is the most recent.

It all started with my clever little plan of turning a 1-gingerbread house recipe into a 3-gingerbread house recipe so that each child would have their own house to decorate. I foolishly skipped the important step of creating a triangular shape on the tops of the walls to support the roof and ended up making an executive decision that this year's houses would be Adobe gingerbread houses. Flat roof. I was worried the kids would be disappointed, but they really took it in stride and got right to work. Nathan asked for the pretzel sticks immediately and set them as bars in the windows, announcing that his house was going to be a gingerbread prison. So sweet. "How does Santa get in to bring the inmates their gifts?"

"They don't get gifts. They have to stay back from the windows so they don't get shot. And there's barbed wire all around, so if they try to escape, they'll get cut up."

Fa-la-la-la-la....la-la-la-la.

After a while, we stopped asking questions about the prison because there was just no way to bring it back around to the happy topic of Christmas. He had a blast decorating and was very proud of his creation. So we chose to find it memorable and humorous. And it really is.

Here's Daniel's. His gingergread man is wearing mittens so he won't get too cold going out to get the firewood:

 And here's Stephanie's. About 20 minutes later, it was bare adobe again.

 Here they are creating their masterpieces:

And here's Nathan, meticulously setting the security measures in place in his holiday house of pain and suffering:

You just can't predict these moments.

Forensic Evidence (and some more tears)

Exhibit A. Hair. Stephanie's hair. Found disembodied on the family room floor. Clearly, a miniature crime had been committed. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time to collect as much of the hair as possible and put it in a bag. So I did. And it's still in the bag. (What should I do with it? It's beautiful rich brown, curly hair. Yes. Natural curl.)

At the time of the crime, I was preparing to cut her hair myself. Well--trim it really. I had given the boys their haircuts the night before and she wanted her turn. So I set the kit down (did NOT know she could open it) and came back 5 minutes later. She was not there, but the hair was.

I tried not to show sadness. I didn't want her to feel TOO bad about it. I think she figured she could put it back on whenever she wanted, and when I looked sad, she started crying. So I told her she looked so pretty and I loved her hair. But really, how could I? She had given herself a mullet. A bad mullet. Wait... is there any other kind?

Just for context, here are a couple photos of her beautiful hair BEFORE the self-do:

See? Didn't I tell you? It was Bee-you-tiful! (Yes, I know. It will be again. But still... this cut came right before the visit of both sets of grandparents.)

And...here's the mullet:

And here's the result after a friend fixed it for us. I say "us" because it hurts me as much as it hurts Stephanie to have this hair gone. Probably more.

She's still pretty cute, though, isn't she? And the curl is still fabulous. Lucky little thing! Now she keeps saying things to me about her hair that let me know she's sad about it. She asked me later in the day of the fix-it cut, "Mommy? Can you see my hair? I can't see my hair." Another day, she told me, "Mommy, my hair is not working. It needs to go down." Then this morning she asked me for braids.

Clearly, this is my first girl. I can just feel some of you sneering about how idiotic it was for me to leave her alone with the kit. But I'm an amateur girl mom. I honestly didn't know. Still... I guess there's no use crying over cut hair.

It starts...

Last night, when I heard a car pull up, I went to the front door to welcome Nathan back from scouts. I stood looking out through the storm door while he gathered his things and thanked his ride. He turned and smiled at me, but as he approached, his smile quickly faded and he started yelling to me, "Mom! Get down! Get down!"

I thought, "What does he think is going to happen? Are we going to be shot at? Is there someone lurking in the bushes?"

But then he said, "Why are you in your pajamas? That's so embarrassing! Get down! Don't let them see you! Oh my gosh!"

I, of course, started laughing and assured him that everyone has pajamas and these people had certainly seen them before. But he continued to shout commands at me and act as though I had a negligee on rather than just ordinary pajamas. I kept laughing, but I also started thinking back to those good times from my youth when my parents found new and creative ways to embarrass ME. You know, things like--making conversation with my friends, or wearing pants with an elastic waistband, or those funky glasses that change from regular to sunglasses as you go from inside to outside (now I think those are awesome). Nathan also recently informed me that my new pair of white Keds (that I LOVE) look like "old person shoes".

I'm reminded of a great Cosby routine where he talks about this very phenomenon with his own kids and says he had to drop his kids off at the corner because they "wouldn't want anyone to know they had parents!"

Nathan turns 12 next month. So I guess...it starts.

Shapeshifters

Okay, T-minus 6 days to camp and I have to do something other than prep for camp or my brain is going to explode.

So here's what I want to share today. My children are shapeshifters. They are really quite amazingly talented. Some of their forms:

STEPHANIE: Easily shifts into her octopus form any time I try to buckle her into something (carseat, stroller, shopping cart). Suddenly, it's like she has tentacles swirling around, in and out of straps and latches, all moving in different directions.

DANIEL: Perhaps the most adept of my shapeshifters, whenever he is asked to do ANY kind of work or chore whatsoever, he instantly becomes roadkill. Squashed flat, not moving a muscle, you would think he was actually dead. We then have to scrape him up off the carpet and do CPR. He is also excellent at shifting into a laughing hyena, a Tasmanian Devil, and a sloth.

NATHAN: Takes the shape of a fly-on-the-wall daily. Wherever there is a conversation to be overheard, that boy is there, eavesdropping and plotting to use the information to his advantage. He is very stealthy. Also morphs into a crow regularly--finding and keeping shiny objects in his "nest" of a room. Any discarded little metal object can become a treasure.

Despite how it sounds, I love my shapeshifters. Do your children have this super-power?

Ambush

Every time we travel by air, I practice the art of ambush. We have just returned from our spring break trip, during which, once again, I had to use these skills.

We boarded the plane early in the processional, right after the announcement for those traveling with small children to come forward. We made our way down the skinny aisle to our scattered assigned seats--all five of us separated from one another. I sent Daniel to one seat, Nathan to another, and Eric sat down in yet another and put Stephanie on his lap for the moment. Then I stood next to him near the aisle, waiting to ambush the unsuspecting passenger assigned to seat 14B. As well as the passenger in 15B. And 15C. Hoping to trade...

Of course, it's not usually too hard to find some takers. Especially if you hand them a few diapers, wipes, and noise-making toys and give them the option of staying in their assigned seat next to your 2-year-old. But I just think, if I'm the one making seating arrangements for the flight, shouldn't I at least get a discount?

On one of our flights, I sealed the deal for our last needed seating change with this question: "Would you like to have a lovely child-free seat right over there?"  The nice man quickly agreed and went off to what I can only assume was a very quiet and restful flight. I was a wee bit jealous, in fact.

Top Secrets

From what I can tell, the number one goal of many Americans is having a "flat belly". (That, and lowering car insurance.) And the way to get the flat belly always seems to be the latest "simple trick".

Forgive me, but this particular goal hardly seems worthy of all the attention given to it. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to be healthy and fit, but that won't always lead to a flat belly. Nor is physical activity the suggested method for getting said belly. After signing the family up for another year's membership at our community's fitness center, Eric said, "Too bad we can't get in shape just by paying the fee." Wouldn't that be great? "Okay! We've forked over the money. In one year, we should be all trim and fit."

There are some other topics for which I would love to know the top secrets. For example:

One simple trick for...

• helping your kids to get along with each other
• soundproofing a room
• maintaining your patience in the midst of noise and chaos
• encouraging gratitude in your children

I'm pretty sure all the answers are somewhere in the scriptures (with the exception of soundproofing), but sometimes I have a hard time seeing what's right before my eyes. Time to get out the magnifying glass. (I can read up on these while I'm working on that flat belly.)

Wit & Wisdom

Today I tried another fun little quiz with my boys. The idea of doing this again came to me during our New Testament scripture study last night. When Eric said we were going to be reading about Cornelius, Nathan said, "Cornelius Fudge?" and Daniel said, "Cornelia Augusta?" (she is a cute little character in a picture book called The Day It Rained Hearts). Their answers are gems--sometimes of humor, sometimes great wisdom. Asking the questions also helps me to see where the gaps are in their knowledge of the gospel so we can be more effective teachers.

With Nathan, I asked him who various (and sometimes lesser-known) people in the scriptures were and then asked him some gospel-related questions. Here are his most amusing and insightful responses.

Who was/were--
(I would say the name and wait for his response)
GOLIATH:  "A soldier who was a little too big."
METHUSELAH:  "Wait--Medusa?"
ISHMAEL:  "Ishmael...Ishmael...I'm guessing that he was a male, but other than that I don't know anything. Wait...Ishmael was a girl, right?"
ESTHER:  "Esther was a girl who was born on Easter."
CAIN & ABEL:  "Wasn't Abel a monkey?"
ZORAM:  "Hmmm....he sounds powerful."

Questions--
What does a prophet do?
"They pray about what they should talk about in General Conference and Jesus and Heavenly Father tell them what they should talk about and how it can change people's lives. It's unlikely, but sometimes it's for just one person in the entire world."
What is the priesthood?
"Power and authority from God that allows us to heal people, to bless the sacrament and pass the sacrament."
What do we do in temples?
"We baptize for the dead, we get married, we get sealed to our family so we can live together forever."
Where is Jerusalem?
"In Europe somewhere. Wait! It's...um...on the right of Spain."

With Daniel, the scripture people questions didn't really work, so I just asked general gospel questions. Here are his delightful responses!

What is a prophet?
"A person who is called by God to be the person who leads General Conference and gives speeches."  (Note: For weeks leading up to Gen. Conf., Daniel has been praying "Bless the prophets on their speeches." Very sweet.)
Who is the Holy Ghost?
"Kind of like a spirit that comforts you when you're scared or sad or maybe even when you're mad. If you're a really good person the Holy Ghost will come to you and come inside of you and comfort you and help you. And he whispers instead of talking loud."
What is a testimony?
"When you know about something that is true."
Where is Jerusalem?
"Close to Africa in the state of Asia."
Tell me something about Joseph Smith.
"First prophet. He was getting sick in his leg, so his mom called the doctor and the doctor came right away. And I think he lived in a log cabin. And the doctor came and said he had to cut off his leg."
What is the priesthood?
"It helps the sick and you have to have a prayer when you're putting one little tiny drop of oil on someone's head. It's kind of like a power of the Lord."
What do we do in the temple?
"We worship God and we can pray there."
What does it mean to get sealed in the temple?
"When you get married and you get sealed it's almost like you get tied together with a rope and you never leave each other. And when you die, you're still together."

That seemed like a good note to end on, so I stopped at that point. And I guess it's a good place to stop now as well.

Daylight Savings Time: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

GOOD: I love the extra daylight in the evening! It's very invigorating.

BAD: I foolishly chose this week to begin a new calisthenics regimen created by my friend. Not only am I embarrassingly out of shape, but it feels like it's even earlier when I'm attempting this regimen.

UGLY: The kids haven't fully adjusted to the new time yet, so I'm dragging them along every morning. They're having to get dressed in such a hurry that I've established a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on dirty underwear. All year, until now, I've made it a habit to ask the boys, especially Daniel, if they had put on fresh underwear when they got dressed in the morning. And I would use my piercing, all-seeing, motherly eyes to stare into their souls and discern whether I was hearing the truth. Now, with 30 seconds till the bus arrives, I've decided it's best just not to ask. Unless I can smell him from a distance.

The House is Bugged

I painted this rock ladybug at girls camp a few years ago. Whichever boy I gave it to quickly forgot about it and moved on. It's now most often seen being carried around by Stephanie who has developed a sincere devotion to bugs. No, I didn't say "fascination" or "interest" or even "fear". Sincere devotion.

She points out the bugs in all the pictures in her story books, she finds bugs and claims them as her own, she tortures them with her love.

But her most devoted moment was during Family Home Evening the week before last. Halfway through the lesson, she ceased her usual disruptive behavior to turn her attention (and demand everyone else's) to a tiny winged insect near the front door. She stood underneath it for the rest of the lesson, saying at intervals, "Buggie!" or "MY buggie!" or "Daddy, go get my buggie." We finished our evening with a closing song--Love One Another with the sign-language actions. Stephanie stood right under the buggie's location on the door frame, cocked her head at a 90 degree angle, and serenaded her buggie through the whole song. Wish we would have video-taped it. Sincere devotion.

Some Enchanted Evening

Once upon a time, a romantic evening went something like this:

Candlelit dinner for two, followed by a walk in the moonlight and some variety of fancy chocolate dessert. Really romantic would have included flowers and semi-formal attire. But gone are the days of sparkling cider and roses.

Last night, Eric and I had an impromptu date at the kitchen table after the kids went to bed. It went something like this:

We brushed the crumbs out of the way (he actually popped one in his mouth--pink cake), then we talked about the day and ended up taking turns quoting Stephanie's current favorite bedtime story verbatim.

Eric--"This is Gossie. Gossie is a gosling."
Me--"A small yellow gosling who likes to wear bright red boots."
Together--"Every day." Laugh!

We finished by deciding we were both hungry and so we poured ourselves some cereal and kept talking.

And this morning, I thought to myself, "That was just as good a date as going to a fancy restaurant." We laughed and talked about our kids and just relaxed. Of course, there are times we really need to go out and be away from the house and the kids. But staying in can be great, too. I was happy to realize I don't even mind that our dancing shoes, bouquets, and truffles have been replaced by rubber duckies, rhyming books, and marshmallows. And when we want to dance, he can grab my hand and say, "They're playing our Primary song."

Deciphering Boys: Entrepreneurship-Part 2

We don't have a money tree. We don't even have any money tree seeds. But we do have a money BOY. He is always coming up with creative ways to make money. I thought it would be fun to tell about his most recent scheme using pictographs. So here's an article from my personal magazine: Motherhood Illustrated.

Green beans for dinner.

Daniel hates them with all the passion he can harness. They are FORBIDDEN. "I'm NOT eating them!"

Nathan has an idea! A green paper kind of idea. "I'll eat your green beans if you pay me a dollar. Then you can still have a treat." Daniel readily accepts this plan.

Me: (like my boots?)

"Umm....no. You can't pay Nathan to be healthy for you."

Kids these days. Money, money, money.

Learning Curve

Over the past 11 plus years of parenting, I have found various ways to save myself time and trouble. I think this might be called "survival". Here's one snapshot of how my parental learning curve has progressed (for better or worse) as, one by one, each child has come into the family.

When we had 1 child:
CHILD: (5pm) "Can I have some candy?" Beg, beg...
ME: "No, you need to wait until after dinner. How about something healthy?"

With 2 children:
CHILDREN: (5pm) "Can we have some candy?" Beg, beg, beg, repeated 8 times (per child)...
ME: "Wait a second and I'll help you get ONE piece. Then you need to wait until after dinner."

With 3 children:
CHILDREN: (5pm) "Can we have some candy?" Pleeeeaaaase, beg, beg, beg, infinity (per child)...
ME: "You can have whatever you want if you can get it yourself."

See how we've progressed? You can imagine what great parents we'd be if we had SEVEN children.

On Pins and Needles

Acupuncturist for Hire:
At least, I hope it's acupuncture and not voodoo. But the boys were watching Princess and the Frog recently, so...it's iffy.

As you can see, she is carefully finding those pressure points on her puppy. Important note: I don't usually allow her to play with pins and needles. I had my sewing box out for something and forgot to put it away before she got up this morning.

Ta-da! Puppy will be better in no time. (Either better, or dead. Could be voodoo.)

In case you're wondering, she did try it on the cat also.

He didn't like it.

Mother of Invention

Out of necessity, mothers become inventors. Or something like that.

Secretly, I have always wanted to be an inventor. There have been so many moments when exasperation and imagination have merged in my mind to create a brilliant idea for something to make my life easier. (Brilliant to me, at least.) Unfortunately, I only rarely remember the ideas when the moment of greatest necessity has passed. A few of them have been followed by a *ka-ching* thought, but I wouldn't have any idea how to get a new invention produced.

Most of my ideas have been related to baby-care, but not all. Here are a few items I think would make life go a little more smoothly:

Invention #1: "The Boomerang Cup" The first-ever sippy cup with a homing device. This would prevent virtually all those disgusting moments of discovering a two-week-old cheesy-smelly milk substance in the previously missing cup. Simply push the button on the home-base monitor, and the cup lights up and makes a beeping sound which gets louder until you locate it and return it to the base.

Invention #2: "Tall-to-Small Stroller" This is a stroller with telescoping handles. You can adjust them to be very short so that older children can easily push the stroller around, or you can adjust them to be perfect for your arm-length, your husband's, Grandma's, babysitter's, you get the idea.

Invention #3: "The You-Go-Girl" This is a user-friendly way for girls to use the bathroom on the go. You know how sometimes you are stuck in traffic and one or more kids need to use the bathroom? NOW?!? If they're boys (and it's #1), you just hand them the empty bottle you keep for just these kinds of occasions. Put the lid on, put it out of sight and smell-range, voila! But girls? Not so easy. Until now. I don't want to describe this one in detail. I think my mother reads my blog from time to time. Plus, if I ever make the prototype, I think it's VERY marketable.

Don't tell me if these already exist. I want to believe I was the first to think of them.

No...I guess you should tell me.

Hidden Messages

You know those cute surveys that are done every so often where an adult reads part of an old adage or saying and then lets a child finish the sentence? Like "Don't put all your eggs in one...pocket." Well, I decided it would be fun to try that with my kids using well-known phrases from the scriptures. Some of the responses were exactly correct, some caused me to stifle a laugh, and a few made me rethink my own comprehension of a verse. Here's what my little scriptorians had to say.

First, Daniel (who is 7):
Ye are the salt of... the earth.
Do not run faster than... the wind.
No man can serve two... people.
Pray always, that you may... find the Holy Ghost.
Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have... Priesthood.
Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto... you.
Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as... snow.
Will a man rob God?... No.
But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for... good.
Wickedness never was... here.
And it came to pass that... Nephi came.
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose... wickedness.
For where your treasure is, there will your... Christ ...be also.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy... love.
Feed my... flock.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be... broken.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by... fasting.
Make a joyful... house ...unto the Lord.

And Nathan (who is 11):
Ye are the salt of... many.
Do not run faster than... the speed limit.
No man can serve two... minutes.
Pray always that you may... talk with the Lord.
Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have... kids.
Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto... men.
Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as... snow.
Will a man rob God?... No.
But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for... repentance.
Wickedness never was... okay.
And it came to pass that... they descended into the wilderness.
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose... his friends.
For where your treasure is, there will your... family ...be also.
Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy... faith.
Feed my... people.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be... demolished.
Man shall not live by bread alone but by... water.
Make a joyful... noise ...unto the Lord.

I loved hearing their responses! I could write pages about what their responses tell me about them. The only one they BOTH filled in correctly was Isaiah 1:18--"though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." If there's anything I would hope for them to already understand about the gospel and keep foremost in their minds throughout their lives, I think that verse would be it: that they can repent and be clean and pure again if they will "reason" with the Lord. Hmmm...they're crazy little people, but I really love them.